Sarutobi Hiruzen Had Absolutely Lost His Mind!

Fugaku was, after all, the current head of the Uchiha Clan. No matter how dissatisfied the Uchiha ninja behind him were, faced with their clan head's stern tone, they could only fall silent.

"Lord Danzo."

Before turning to leave with a rigid expression, Fugaku said in a slightly heavy voice, "The Uchiha Clan has no ulterior motives toward the village. There is no need for the village to keep distrusting us like this."

With that said...

Without waiting for Danzo to speak, Fugaku gritted his teeth and turned away, leaving Danzo with nothing but the sight of his receding back.

Fugaku sighed inwardly.

He knew he had backed down yet again, and in front of so many of his clansmen at that... this time, his retreat might even leave Uchiha Chisen completely isolated.

But Fugaku felt that if he refused to back down, the relationship between the village and the Uchiha would become utterly beyond repair.

The village already distrusted the Uchiha Clan.

If they now clashed with the Root Ninja...

Would the Uchiha Clan still have a place in Konoha?

"I'm sorry, Chisen..." Fugaku looked up at the full moon and murmured, "I'm doing this for the greater good, too. As long as the Uchiha Clan can continue to coexist peacefully with the village, I'll bear all the blame, or whatever else comes, alone."

Fugaku felt he saw the situation clearly.

The Uchiha Clan might seem powerful, but against the entire village, they were nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

"I'm only doing this to protect the Uchiha Clan."

Some of the shame faded from his eyes.

"Hmph. The Uchiha..." Danzo's eyes grew increasingly sinister, but he had not lost his reason to the point of trying to forcibly detain Fugaku.

"Lord Danzo, the Hokage and the others are back!" a Root Ninja suddenly alerted him.

Danzo froze. "Already?!"

He waited only a few minutes before he indeed saw Sarutobi Hiruzen returning to Konoha with a group of Anbu Ninja.

"Hm?"

Danzo suddenly noticed something was wrong. Many of the Anbu Ninja were carrying "dead people" on their backs.

Even Monkey was holding a "dead person" in his arms.

So many dead!

By the moonlight, his gaze wandered over the corpses, but he could not find the loathsome face he most wanted to see.

Most of the corpses were dressed as Anbu Ninja, while some looked like research staff.

And every one of them had died a gruesome death! Many of the bodies were missing parts, looking as though they had been torn to pieces.

Danzo also caught a faint smell of burning.

"Hiruzen, where is Uchiha Chisen?!" Danzo's brows furrowed deeply, and he could no longer wait to demand an answer.

Sarutobi Hiruzen raised his eyes and glanced at Danzo.

But he simply walked around Danzo without a word, ignoring every Root Ninja as well, as though none of them existed.

Danzo's temper began to flare.

"Hiruzen!"

"Lord Danzo." An Anbu Ninja suddenly stepped in front of him and said quietly, "Lord Hokage has just lost his son. Please don't disturb him."

Lost his son?

Danzo's pupils contracted slightly.

Then did that mean the dead man in Monkey's arms was Sarutobi Shinosuke? Monkey's eldest son was dead? Killed by Uchiha Chisen?

Danzo's breathing quickened a little.

That made them mortal enemies, didn't it? Surely Monkey had been furious enough to have the Anbu Ninja surround Uchiha Chisen and kill him?

"As for Uchiha Chisen..." The Anbu Ninja hesitated before continuing, "He left the Secret Research Base, so he should already be back in the village. Perhaps he couldn't be bothered to take the long way to the main gate and just went straight over the village wall?"

Danzo suddenly froze.

"What do you mean?"

His sinister eyes filled with disbelief. His emotions surged so violently that he could barely control the expression on his aged face. Gritting his teeth, Danzo demanded bitterly, "Are you saying... Hiruzen let that Naturally Evil Uchiha Brat go? Even after that evil Uchiha killed his eldest son?"

"Yes," the Anbu Ninja answered simply.

Danzo was dumbstruck.

He knew Monkey was old now, that he had long since lost the ambition of his younger days and become indecisive.

But he had never imagined that even when faced with his son's murderer, that bastard Monkey would still be so indecisive!

How could he let his son's killer go?

Was he a saint?!

"Hiruzen!" Danzo could no longer contain his emotions. His expression darkened so much that he nearly started cursing, but he forced himself to hold back and merely shouted at Sarutobi Hiruzen's back, "What the hell are you thinking?! That Naturally Evil Uchiha Brat killed your son! He killed all these Anbu Ninja, too! And you're still going to let that menace stay in the village?!"

Danzo could not understand!

Sarutobi Hiruzen paused briefly.

"I..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen clenched his teeth so tightly that blood seeped from his gums as he gazed down at Sarutobi Shinosuke's face in his arms.

"I... am preserving the last of Shinosuke's Will of Fire. He didn't want to see the village exhaust its own strength through internal strife when there wasn't even an enemy invasion."

"That was his dying wish."

"I..." Sarutobi Hiruzen drew a deep breath. "Must fulfill that wish for him. And Uchiha Chisen... Uchiha Chisen didn't... kill the wrong people-that was what Shinosuke said, too."

Danzo listened in utter disbelief, wondering whether he, too, had grown old enough that something had gone wrong with his hearing.

He thought Sarutobi Shinosuke, who had been killed by Uchiha Chisen, had gone mad!

And Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had lost his son, had gone mad as well!

Damn it...

Was there anyone sane left in Konoha?

Elsewhere.

After following Uchiha Chisen back to the village, Izumi dragged her exhausted body toward the Uchiha Clan compound once more. Along the way, she and Uchiha Chisen parted ways.

"Ah! I'm so tired..."

Izumi walked down the dim street, feeling as though she had nothing left to live for.

She was exhausted both physically and mentally.

She could not count how many people Chisen had killed that night. Especially when that rain of magma came down-surely only a handful of people in the Secret Research Base could have survived?

And even Lord Hokage's eldest son had been killed by Chisen.

Was this [absolute justice]...?

Even being the Hokage's eldest son granted no special privileges before justice.

"Maybe... that's why, no matter how tired I am, I grit my teeth and do everything I can to keep following him?"

Izumi was talking to herself.

Just then, she nearly walked straight into a tall figure.

Fortunately, she reacted quickly and stopped.

Then she hurriedly took two steps back.

She glanced up in haste and froze, blurting out, "Clan Head Fugaku?"

Fugaku froze as well. He recognized the Uchiha girl.

"Izumi?"

Something suddenly occurred to Fugaku. "Is Chisen back?"

Izumi hurriedly replied, "Chisen should be home by now."

"...I see!" Fugaku breathed an inward sigh of relief.

Chisen had come back alive.

Fugaku felt a little guilty again.

Meanwhile.

Having returned home, Uchiha Chisen turned his attention to the final "inheritance" left to him by Sarutobi Shinosuke, his former Jonin instructor-the "reward" dropped upon killing a red-name villain.